Compliance with Laboratory Safety Management System Standards of the Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University

Abstract

This mixed methods research aimed to study compliance with laboratory safety management system standards and to identify the causes of non-compliance. The population consisted of laboratories from 4 departments: Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, Health Sciences and Applied Sciences, and Computational Sciences, totaling 116 laboratories under the faculty. The research instrument used was the ESPReL Checklist, which included 162 items, and the study was conducted from 2019 to 2023. The study results showed that overall compliance scores ranged from 59.7-70.0 points, with scores showing an increasing trend. Four components were found to have compliance scores below 50 points: management system administration, data and document management, risk management, and basic safety knowledge provision. Among all departments, Physical Sciences laboratories had the lowest scores compared to other departments, with components scoring below 50 points consistent with the overall results. In the qualitative part of the study, the researchers interviewed 12 laboratory heads and used root cause analysis tools, including fishbone diagrams. The findings revealed that the root causes of problems leading to non-compliance with standards included budget and management system limitations, a lack of systematic inspection systems for structures and equipment, key personnel not participating in safety training, and laboratory heads not managing data and documents effectively.